These Little Wonders
by aca-avenger
Summary: Oneshot series. Santana and Brittany always knew that their kids were amazing; and as they children grew older and became adults themselves they only became more aware of how lucky they truly were. The Little Wonders of the Lopez children making their parents proud. Part III of the Glory trilogy.
1. Lily Part One

Hey everyone, this is a series of oneshots about the Lopez kids from my Glory 'verse. I had a request to write a one-shot to see where they all ended up and I figured why not write a whole bunch. This one is from Santana's and _Brittany's _point of view. I hope you all enjoy (:

One.

_June 2042_

I can't help but bounce my leg up and down out of nervousness as I stare at the clock. The sound of its constant click as every second goes by puts me even more on edge. All I can think is 'Where is she?'

"Baby, you need to relax." My wife whispers into my ear as she wraps her arms around my waist from behind.

"I can't relax." I tell her through clenched teeth. "I don't know where she is, she's late. So no, Brittany I'm not going to relax." The words come out much harsher than I had intended; clearly the familiarity of the situation was getting to me a lot more than I had originally thought. I can't help but mentally face palm myself as I feel her tense up behind me.

"Fine then," She says; her hurt clearly in her tone, 'then what are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know." I answer honestly, there was nothing I could do then and there isn't anything I can do now.

"Exactly, so take a chill pill and let's go take our seats. She'll be here Santana. She may have come into this world a bit earlier than planned but you know that ever since she's been fashionably late for everything. I do believe she go that from you, you know?"

"I know," I groan; earning a small giggle from Brittany.

"It's her graduation San, she won't miss it. But we will if we get terrible seats, so come on you worry wart." She places a quick kiss to my cheek before hauling me towards the school auditorium.

"You better be right about this Britt-Britt."

* * *

_And of course I was._

_Not too long after Santana and I managed to find ourselves a good section of seats for the family, the Berry's and Puck included, the principal made his way up to the podium._

_"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to George Washington High School's graduation ceremony. I would like for you to all give a round of applause for the graduating class of 2042!" The principal smiles widely, clapping loudly as the large mass of black robes rise to their feet and turn to towards the audience._

_Out of the corner of my eye it's impossible to miss the fact that Santana is searching the crowd for Lily's face. As the clapping beings to die out and the students take their seats I take her hand to calm her nerves. Even in the seat beside her I can hear her heart beating at a rapid pace; loud and persistent like the bird in an old cuckoo clock. If Lily hadn't asked for me to keep this a secret, it would be out of my mouth in an instant to get her to calm down._

_"This year's class is full of innovative, hard working students who deserve to be here today. Time and time again, this class had beaten and created records in this school surprising both the staff and sometimes even themselves. On this note I would like to introduce a student from the High School for Health Careers and Sciences, the youngest president of the debate team in our school's 125 year history, and this year's valedictorian," Before he finishes his introduction I can see Santana's eyes wife in realization and surprise. "Lily Lopez."_

_The auditorium once again is filled with applause as I see a very familiar figure stand up, her black robe accented beautifully with a wide gold ribbon draped around her shoulders slightly covered by her long, wavy raven hair._

_"Surprise" I say as I squeeze my wife's hand slightly._

_Santana turning her hand towards me and I can't help but smile even more. Tears have formed in my wife' eyes, rolling down her cheek toward the huge heart I always knew she had._

_"You knew?" She asks, her voice soft lie a small child._

_"Of course, how else would she have been able to surprise you? I told her to go early so you wouldn't see her and that I'd handle your nerves when you thought she was late." I earn a laugh in response, "See? Perfect plan."_

_"Perfect plan." She grins before placing a quick kiss to my lips. "Now shush, I wants ta hear ma baby's speech."_

_"Yes dear." I reply, wrapping my arm around her shoulder and hold her closer to me._

_As Lily reaches the podium the wide grin on her face instantly makes my heart stop. She looks so much like Santana, so grown up yet there's still that childlike fire in her eyes._

_"Thank you, Principal Adams. Today is a the day we have been waiting for even since we were old enough to know what high school was, when we all we wanted was to grow up so we could drive cars and do all the things our families told us we couldn't because we weren't old enough. Family is the main reason we're all here today. And I don't just mean the family we were born into, family is all that and more. It's the family we chose to make out of bonds whether by blood, friendship or trust that has gotten us where we are today. So for all of us I'd like to say thank your for being there supporting us and letting us dream to be whomever and whatever we wish to be..."_

* * *

_As the crowd claps at the end of my daughter's speech I can't help but wipe the tears from my eyes. I was certain she hadn't gotten her way of words from Santana but she had sure gotten her heart._

_"Thank you." Santana mumble into my exposed skin next to the corner of my dress strap, I can feel her warm tears rolling down my skin. I clearly hadn't been the only wet eye in the room._

_"For what?" I ask before placing a kiss on the top of her head, breathing in the smell of her shampoo and something that was simply Santana._

_"For giving me this, for our children, for everything." She whispers._

_"You're more than welcome."_


	2. Nik Part One

Here's another one (: It takes place from Brittany's point of view. I hope you enjoy!

Two.

_May 2047_

"Britt, you're staring." Santana's voice barely enters my conscious; her voice is as if it an muffled whisper. I don't fully comprehend what's going on until I feel a hand grip somewhat tightly on my shoulder.

"Huh?" I tear my eyes away to look down at Santana.

"I said you're staring, honey. What's wrong?" She removes her hand from my shoulder, wiping away the tears on my cheeks I hadn't noticed until now.

"I just can't believe it" I answer softly before once again looking at our son.

The bleached-like blonde boy with a mop full of hair who asked me to cut his PB & J's into triangle instead of squares and refused to take his first soccer jersey off for almost a week was gone. He was replaced with a man who's hair was cut so short is appeared to be a sandy brown and his clothes were spotless with not a single speck of lint. Yet I couldn't tear my eyes away from him.

He was different now, yet he was still the same somehow.

"I know, Britt-Britt, but look at how happy he is." Santana whisper soothingly

She was right. Anyone in the universe could see he was happy. His smile was so wide you could distinctly see the two dimples on his face; Santana had swore he had gotten them from me even if I wasn't always so sure. It was his smile. That was why he till looked like our little boy.

"It feels like yesterday he graduated high school." I wrap my arms around Santana's waist. "It feels like yesterday that he came to me with that letter."

* * *

_April 2043_

"Mom?" Nik's voice echoes of the hall walls.

"I'm in the office, mijo." I call back before taking my feet off the desk; he would be here in a second and would surely reprimand me for my terrible etiquette. Hearing your eighteen year old son tell you how bad your manners are is definitely something a mother doesn't want to hear.

As he enters the office I can't help but stare at him. He looks practically terrified, yet his shoulders are back and his head is held high with confidence. I can't stop my jaw from dropping slightly as his next word fall out of his mouth.

"I'm not going to Duke." The tone of voice he used was so calm it was startling.

"But you worked so hard to get in. Why not go?"

"It wasn't Duke I worked hard for Mom. It was this." He passes me an envelope I hadn't realized he was holding.

If it's possible the envelope I hold in my hands puts me in more shock. It's a sealed envelope from West Point U.S Military Academy.

"What does this mean, Peanut?" I let Santana's nickname for him as a child slip from my lips and somehow it only seems to give him more confidence.

"It means that I take this family very seriously. When I was old enough you sat me down and told me how people would see our family as wrong just because we were different. You told me that when I was older it was my responsibility to take care of this family because that is what a real man does. A real man protects his family Mom and this is the best way I know how to keep doing that."

"But you shouldn't have to give up your dream,"

"But soccer is not my dream Mom." He cuts me off with force, yet manages to stay respectful. "I don't want to go to university and take courses that I would hate just to play soccer until it isn't even fun anymore. This," he points to the letter in my hands, "is my dream Mom. I want to be a son you're proud of, a man who protects his family and his country. Do you understand?"

I look up from the envelope to find my soon with tears in his eyes, just enough to make them glossy and to let me know he's completely serious.

"I'm proud of you no matter what, and so is Ma, but I understand." I give him a soft smile before taking hold of his hand. "But what I don't understand is why you haven't opened this." I wave the envelope in front of him.

"Because I wanted you to open it," He gives me a wide dimpled smile and I can't help but nod.

"Yes sir." I say before giving him a grin. My hands are shaking as I open the envelope, hauling out the letter. I let out a deep breath before beginning to read, "Dear Mr. Lopez, we are pleased to inform you…"

* * *

"And now look at him, you can't deny that he look really handsome in that uniform B," Santana smiles.

And I couldn't.

As I look to my eldest son again I take the time to actually see how well his dress uniform looks on him and no matter how gigantic the ring is, his West Point class ring looks like it has always belonged there.

Over the past four years my little boy, who used to ask us to read him the comics his Uncle Sam would send him and always wanted bubbles in his night time bath, had grown into a man. He was no longer our little Peanut, now he was Second Lieutenant Lopez of the United States Army.

And all along the way I've always been proud.


	3. Tommy Part One

Sorry for being away for a while, work and school have gotten in the way :( Thankfully I've only got two weeks left of school so I should be able to write more often soon. Hope You guys enjoy!

Three.

_October 2043_

"Ma?" The sound of my youngest son's voice reverberating off the hall walls alerts us to his presence.

"We're in the kitchen, mijo!" I call out as I unwrap my legs from around Brittany's waist, swiftly jumping off the counter. This was not a position that I wanted us to be caught in. Brittany quickly wipes the lipstick off the corner of my mouth before hopping up onto a stool behind the bar counter, a wide grin on her face.

"What's up T-bird?" I ask as hear him cross the carpet threshold, his feet hitting the slate tile floor of the kitchen.

"B?" My eyes are focused on my wife behind the counter; her grin has been wiped off her face, replaced with a look of what could only be described as a mixture of shock, pain, fear and disgust. "Britt, what's wrong?"

I rush towards her, wiping off the tears that have begun to roll down her pale cheeks. She doesn't answer me, she doesn't blink. She raises a hand to cover her mouth before letting out a whimper.

"Tom," I say before turning around. With a hitched breath my jaw drops and my stomach begins to churn.

My son's caramel toned skin is tainted with blood and newly forming bruises. Just by a glance and my medical knowledge that his left cheek bone is broken. His usual black-rimmed glasses aren't on his face but held in two pieces in one hand, his muddy sweater in the other.

"Mijo, what happened?" I can't help but walk away from my wife's side and place a gentle hand on my son's face weeping away the blood, just as I had with Brittany's tears.

And just like Brittany he doesn't say a word. The tears he had clearly been trying to hold back finally come out as a sob. My slight hold on him is lost as he drops to the floor weeping.

Before I know it Brittany is by my side as we join our son on the warm tile floor. Brittany wraps her arms around him, guiding his unbroken cheek to the top of her shoulder. As he buries his face into the crook of her neck, Brittany runs her fingers through his mop of black curls in a small attempt to soothe him. He no longer looks like my grease-monkey of a teenager but my little boy who would only stop crying if Brittany held him until he was around seven years old. He would curl up in her lap burying himself into Brittany's hair until he couldn't cry anymore and would fall asleep.

"Que estará bien, mijo." (_It's gonna be okay) _I say taking the muddy sweater and glasses from his hands to take them in my own. "Que estará bien."

"Mami, it hurts, it hurts so much. I don't understand. Why? Why would they do this? How they have that much hate?" The pain in my son's voice causes tears to blur my vision, much like my mind. What hate was my son referring to? Thankfully Brittany beats me to the question.

"Why would anyone hate you, sweetheart?" Brittany asks softly, trying to keep Tommy as calm as possible. It wouldn't be good for any of us if his Lopez temper got the better of him at a time like this.

"I tried, Momma, I really tried but there were too many of them. I tried, I swear." His words are slightly slurred, alerting me even more.

Brittany lets out a gasp, causing me to turn my attention to her. She lifts her head from our son's head, her fingers layered in blood.

"Mijo, look at me." I say, attempting to ease both my own and my wife's anxiety. I don't succeed as I see his eyes are glassy. "Mijo, can you tell me when your birthday is?" A simple question such as this will let me know if my assumptions are correction.

"Mami, I don't want a Spiderman birthday cake." He says softly and my fears are confirmed.

"Britt, I'm pretty sure he has a concussion. We need to get him to the hospital. You need to keep him awake for me, I'll drive okay?" I lean forward placing a kiss to Tommy's forehead.

Brittany nods in response; then places a kiss to the top of Tommy' head. "It's going to be alright, lieve."

* * *

"He's going to be alright, isn't he San?" Brittany whispers into my ear. She may be sitting in my lap but her eyes are trained on our son's face.

"He will be, just as long as we keep waking him up as directed he's gone to be fine. Physically that is, emotionally? I don't know sweetheart." I answer, lightly running my fingers along her arm in order to keep her calm. Mama Bear Brittany would not be very effective right now, when we wake Tommy in a few minutes I needed her to be her usual silly self, and so did he.

"Can we wake him up now?" Her voice is justly nervous.

"Go ahead honey." I place a kiss to her temple in reassurance. "I'm right behind you."

Brittany is quick to leave my lap, swiftly reaching Tommy's bedside. "Tommy, wake up sweetie." She says, wiping his hair from his forehead. His face scrunches up slightly in response. "Come on, wake up Tomahawk."

Tommy's eyes flicker open slowly, realization eventually crossing his features and he attempts to get up out of the bed.

"Hey there, you've got to rest mijo." I say, getting up from my seat in the uncomfortable hospital chair at the foot of his bed.

"No, no!" He raises his voice slightly, startling Brittany and myself. "No, where's Chase? Where is he?" His usually innocent face is contorted in pain and what I would describe as terror.

"I would he's assume he's at home, mijo. Why? Does he know what happened to you? Was he there?" The words are out of my mouth without a second thought.

"Tommy I need you to relax, honey." Brittany's response was clearly what was more appropriate. She puts a hand to his shoulder, slowly and carefully pushing him back into the bed.

"No, I need to see him." Tommy's voice was persistent.

"You aren't seeing anyone until you calm down, Thomas Miguel Lopez." My wife's voice is surprisingly firm. I had expected her to soothe him, not use my tactics of slight 'tough love' parenting. "And you're definitely not going back to sleep until you tell us what happened to you."

"She's right, mijo." I give him a nod before taking a seat on the side of his bed, taking his hand in mine. As I continue to speak, I can't help but notice the tears forming in his eyes. "We need to know what happened, sweetheart. You're not going to be in trouble, I promise. We just want to keep you safe."

"I, I" He struggles to get his words out. "I was just leaving school with Chase, we were going to go to the café at the end of the street and start studying for the AP Chemistry exam. We, we" He starts stuttering, clearly trying to stop himself from crying.

"It's okay, just keep going mijo." I gently squeeze his hand.

"We never made it to the store. They just came out of n-nowhere and I-I just had to protect him. W-we didn't d-deserve it. H-He didn't deserve it." By the end he had started to cry.

"But why did they attack you, Tommy?" Brittany asks carefully as she wipes his tears.

He clears his throat and takes a deep breath in order to try and compose himself. "They found out."

Brittany looks to me with a confusion that matches my own. "About?"

"Chase." His voice waiver slightly but I can tell he's trying to be brave. "About me and Chase." A nervous smile forms on my son's bruised face.

Out of the corner of my eye I can see a smile form on my wife's face. "It's okay mijo." Brittany quickly looks to me for reassurance. The knowing smile on her face quickly clues me in on what my son is trying to say.

"You love him, don't you?" I ask before giving him a soft smile and another light squeeze to his hand, letting him know that I wasn't mad or anything close to it.

My son's weak smile grows wider and as he speaks it is with a newly found confidence. "I do."

I lean forward and place a kiss to his forehead, knowing that I've taught my son what love is and how important it is to experience it.

"Then that's all that matters."


End file.
